Concussion guidelines signed into law

Friday

Cody Meeks says he's suffered from seven concussions in his young life, and the last one briefly knocked him out and permanently forced him off the football field.

"I was playing running back and got the ball and there was a really big linebacker and he just snagged me," said Meeks, 21, a former Washington High School football running back and linebacker who last played in 2009 at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

Cody Meeks says he's suffered from seven concussions in his young life, and the last one briefly knocked him out and permanently forced him off the football field.

"I was playing running back and got the ball and there was a really big linebacker and he just snagged me," said Meeks, 21, a former Washington High School football running back and linebacker who last played in 2009 at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. "The athletic trainers out there knew. They told me to go to the doctors. I came back home and went to a neurologist and they said, 'no more.'"

Meeks, who lives in Washington and is working toward a career in law enforcement, said he hopes the law Gov. Pat Quinn signed Thursday helps educate people about concussions while making it harder for student-athletes to slip by and return to the playing field before they are ready.

Quinn signed HB200 during a ceremony at Soldier Field in Chicago. The new law requires athletes to receive written clearance from a licensed health professional before returning from a concussion. It also ensures that student-athletes, parents and coaches are able to identify signs of a concussion through increased education.

"In the past, it was the coach and whoever did the evaluation and said you can go, but (with the bill signed into law) it has to be an approved health-care professional who approves a kid to play," said Erin Durbin, program coordinator with the advocacy center at the Children's Hospital of Illinois.

The new law makes a set of guidelines, adopted by the Illinois High School Association in April, mandatory for all elementary, middle, junior high and high schools. Those guidelines specify when a student-athlete can return from a post-concussion injury.

Kurt Gibson, associate executive director with the IHSA, said the law applies a standardized approach on when student-athletes can return to play. Previously, he said, the 800 or so schools in Illinois, "had any number of different approaches."

Dr. Steve Orlevitch, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at Great Plains Orthopedics in Peoria, said by establishing a standard for schools to follow throughout Illinois, as well as providing more education, the law helps protect student-athletes from returning to the athletic field too quickly.

He said the standard analysis is a seven-day period between the injury and the time when a student-athlete returns to the field showing no signs of the concussion. Those signs include mood changes, sleepiness, concentration lapses and memory loss.

"That person should be asymptomatic seven days to return to a sport," said Orlevitch, who works with the Peoria Rivermen, Chiefs and multiple high schools, including Morton. "That's the time the brain is susceptible to a second concussion."

Meeks said during his high school playing days, football players avoided reporting some of their injuries to prevent prolonged trips to the bench.

"They have the mentality to tough it out," he said.

Greg Eberle, assistant director of PROeX Sports Safety Program at Hopedale Medical Complex, said the law's aim is to provide more education to prevent that mentality.

The program, in conjunction with the Children's Hospital of Illinois Advocacy Department, will host a 6:30 to 8 p.m. Aug. 4 concussion discussion in an effort to provide more awareness.

"I think there is a lot of media coverage on it and people kind of know about concussions, but they aren't educated enough on the signs and symptoms of a concussion and the difference between a heat illness and having a head injury," said Eberle, who works with Tremont, Deer Creek-Mackinaw, Olympia, Hartsburg-Emden and Delavan high schools. "There is a lot of research that needs to be told to the parents and organizations."

John Sharp can be reached at 686-3282 or jsharp@pjstar.com.

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